Berth 55 businesses face closure as a result of Desmond Bridge replacement

Whether he's here on lunch break or on a day off with family, Pete Garcia has been eating at Berth 55 Fish Market and Seafood Deli in West Long Beach almost every week since he became a longshoreman in 1982.

"This is my second time this week," Garcia said as he waited for his order at the deli counter Thursday. "Even when I'm not working, I bring my 2 1/2-year-old grandson to look at the water."

The thought of a waterfront without Berth 55 is unfathomable to Garcia.

"This has been down here since my dad was on the waterfront," he said. "We need places like this."

For more than 40 years, Berth 55 has been serving fresh seafood dishes at fast-food prices to longshoremen and blue-collar residents who prefer its casual setting to more upscale establishments such as Gladstone's or King's Fish House downtown.

But the longtime restaurant, as well as the sports fishing business next door, will have to close in the fall to make way for Long Beach Fire Department's Station 20, which is being displaced because of the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project.

Built in 1968, the bridge - a major link to the nation's trade system connecting Terminal Island and the Long Beach (710) Freeway - has been slowly deteriorating as traffic volumes have risen.

So Port of Long Beach officials began plans for a $1 billion project to replace the bridge, which is expected to be finished in 2016.

However, Fire Station 20 is in the way of where one of the new bridge supports is supposed to be built.

Officials said there are few sites from which to choose to relocate the station, which operates both a fire engine and at least one fire boat.

"Berth 55 was the best for us because not only did it have really good waterside access, but what it does provide for us was better land access," said Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee, adding that the majority of calls at Station 20 are along the Pico Avenue corridor. "By bringing the fire station out onto Pico, it gives us really good response times."

The potential closure of Berth 55 has prompted Westside residents to organize a community forum on Thursday to consider other options, including having the fire station and businesses co-exist.

"For us, it's a landmark," said Tony Rivera, chairman of the Westside Council, a group of Westside community members.

Lawrence Maehara, whose family has run Berth 55 for 23 years, said about 60 to 70 jobs would be lost, including many employees who have been working on the landing for more than 30 years.

"We managed to survive the worst economic recession I've been in only to close because of this," Maehara said. "They shouldn't be tearing it down. They should be enhancing it."

He added that he has collected 3,000 signatures for a petition supporting the business in less than three weeks.

"This is a community asset," he said. "This is the last place at the port that the community has."

Port officials would only give his family a month-to-month agreement after the long-term lease with the port ended in 2008, Maehara said.

"We never knew for sure that they had other plans," he said.

Port officials disagreed.

"It was already clear at that time that with all the development going on at the port that long-term we were going to need this property for other uses," port spokesman Art Wong said.

Maehara said he was issued a 180-day notice to vacate, which means he must be out of the building in October.

Wong added that the port had been working with the family to help them transition out of the space and move the business.

But relocation isn't a real possibility, Maehara said.

"It's one thing if it's a business I can pick up and move to another location, but it is something that is so unique, it's irreplaceable," Maehara said.

Among the solutions being floated in the community is having the businesses and the fire station onsite. However, the setup isn't realistic, Wong said.

"Physically, there's only so much room there, and I don't know - in terms of security - how practical it is to have a restaurant and fire station," he said. "Safety and security would have to take priority over other uses."

Still, Maehara said he hopes there is another plan that can keep his business on the waterfront.

"We'd love to stay here," Maehara said. "We love serving Long Beach, we love the port and being down here on the water, love serving the longshoremen and the generations of families that come down here."

A community forum will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday at Berth 55, 555 Pico Ave. in Long Beach.